DMS Chapter 45
DMS Chapter 45
Flinx was enjoying the slow travel that the merchant caravan was doing on the road. The trees were sparkling and full of life, and their emerald glow looked like gems in Flinx’s eyes. They were still covered by drops of water from the morning spring rain.
Because of the rain, the road was not dusty, which made the travel truly favorable in Flinx’s opinion.
The funny thing was, he did not even know where the next stop was going to be, and what the situation was on the road to the next town they were supposed to stop at. The only thing he knew was that the caravan was on the way back to the city of Ilioven.
The wagons, carriages, or carts, or whatever they were called was moving slowly enough that the chair he bought was steady. He spent 150 dollars on it in his System Shopping Site, making sure to select something heavy and sturdy so it would not move around while the cart was moving. At first, Flinx thought that he would need to nail it down to the floor of the wagon, but it seemed like there would not be a need to.
After around three hours of traveling, which Flinx was currently enjoying since the journey had just started and everything was a novelty, an alarm sounded. He was not too worried, since Barthos did boast that the merchant caravan was well defended. He was curious, though, so he stepped outside the wagon to check what was attacking them.
Flinx joined Barthos, who was looking at the caravan guards who were fighting with kobolds that came out of the forest.
“Normally, during spring, there would be fewer monsters on the road since the forest is in the season of abundance, but we expected attacks in this location. The forest here is simply teeming with monsters. Once we’re far enough away from Beldor town, attacks from monsters would be rare,” Barthos told Flinx.
At first, Flinx thought that the animals that were pulling the carriages would be nervous, but the huge horses looked calm. If he was being honest, he was a little disappointed that the animals pulling the carriages of the caravan were just horses. Where were the large lizard mounts? Or the unicorns? Or the huge ostriches? Normally, when reading a fantasy novel, the tamed animals pulling carriages were fantastical creatures, so seeing just regular horses was a bit of a letdown for him.
Since the caravan master was chatty, Flinx asked more questions, like when they would arrive at the next stop, or the name of that village or town. Barthos told him that they would arrive at the village of Redburn the day after tomorrow.
Barthos also informed him that the caravan would not stop during noon and would continue moving forward. They would only stop and camp when the sun set.
After a few more minutes of watching the fight, Flinx saw that all of the kobolds were killed and the caravan guards had started looking for mana stones. He did not want to watch the process, so he left Barthos and returned to his carriage.
Soon, the caravan started moving again. Flinx returned to watching the road and the surrounding area. He was greatly enjoying the scenery. The picturesque mountain in the distance looked like scenes in beautiful paintings. The surrounding scenery was giving Flinx a sense of freedom. He had been inside a dungeon for several years, and the only thing that prevented him from dying of suffocation was his access to the internet, but at that moment, he felt like his spirit was flying.
Flinx suddenly had an urge to exit the wagon and start flying, just to fully enjoy the wind on his face, but decided not to do something that would probably attract monsters to their location. He could cast the Invisibility spell before casting the Fly spell, but decided to just enjoy the sense of freedom that he was feeling inside his wagon.
When he was trying to find monsters in the forest, Flinx was always tense because he expected a battle to occur any moment. But now that he was traveling within a protected caravan, he felt himself relaxing.
Flinx knew that sooner or later, he would get bored with the scenery since he was expecting that he would get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again in the long run, but for now, he was greatly appreciating everything his eyes could see. Besides, the internet was still there when he got bored.
He was enjoying scenery watching so much that when noon arrived, Flinx forgot to eat. Watching the tree, the mountains in the distance, and hearing the sounds of animals in the forest brought a sense of stillness like some sort of meditation, but when he woke up, he realized that he just felt a little sleepy.
Soon, the sun had set, and the twilight brought forth a beauty in the surrounding area that took Flinx’s breath away. He felt his wagon stopped and the driver who was driving his carriage told him that it was time to set up camp.
Since he had nothing to do, Flinx just watched everyone setting up for the night. Several cookfires were being set up, and soon, food was being cooked. He joined Barthos’s cookfire and saw Martha cooking something in a huge pot. Their two boys were playing with each other, and Barthos was talking to Ludur.
When Flinx got near, he overheard Ludur reporting to Barthos that the same guard shifts they had before arriving in the town of Beldor would be implemented, since they were far enough away from the town that they were not expecting monsters to attack the camp.
From the context of the conversation, Flinx knew that it meant fewer guards on patrol.
When Barthos saw Flinx, the caravan master glared at him.
“You can’t have food from my pot. You only paid to join us in traveling!”
Flinx felt irritated. He knew that the caravan master would earn a tremendous amount of gold coins from the salt that he had traded to the man, and Barthos was being stingy with his food. Not that he had any desire to eat whatever Martha was cooking, because ultimately, he knew that any meal that came from his System Shopping Site would be a hundred times better.
He laughed when Flinx saw Martha throw a pot lid at her husband.
“Don’t listen to him, Flinx. You can eat with us,” Martha told Flinx.
“Thank you, Martha, but I brought my own food.”
Even though he was planning to buy a meal from his System Shopping Site, he planned to join Barthos and his family during dinner, but since the caravan master irritated him so much, he decided to return to his wagon and eat by himself. Barthos did not even provide him a lantern, so he purchased a large solar camping light from his System Shopping Site for 50 dollars.
Thankfully, the solar lantern was fully charged when he received it. After that, he purchased a good meal for 20 dollars. While eating, Flinx decided that the next time the caravan stopped to camp, he would join other merchant families and would not try to mingle with Barthos and his family again. He was irritated by Barthos's stupid and greedy behavior.
When the night deepened, Flinx felt the temperature fall and knew that there was a need for him to purchase necessities for sleep. He spent 100 dollars to buy a sleeping bag for cold weather and a couple of pillows.